Islam: A Totalitarian Ideology?

Islam: A Totalitarian Ideology?
Long but very interesting article. Two knowledgeble men argue for and against the thesis.
Ibn Warraq says yes, Islam is a totalitarian ideology.

All Islamic human rights schemes such as the 1981 Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights; the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (circa 1990), etc., severely restrict and qualify the rights of individuals, particularly women, and minorities such as non-Muslims and those such as apostates, unbelievers, and heretics who do not accept Islamic religious orthodoxy.

As for religious minorities, the relations of Muslims and non-Muslims were set in a context of a war: jihad. The totalitarian nature of Islam is nowhere more apparent than in the concept of Jihad, the Holy War, whose ultimate aim is to conquer the entire world and submit it to the one true faith, to the law of Allah. To Islam alone has been granted the truth -- there is no possibility of salvation outside it. It is the sacred duty -- an incumbent religious duty established in the Koran and the Traditions -- of all Muslims to bring it to all humanity. Jihad is a divine institution, enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam. Muslims must strive, fight and kill in the name of God:

Warraq then proceeds to quote relevant sections from the Koran and Hadith to make his point. He does not need to do much convincing, as he has the daily media on his side (albeit unwillingly) to prove his point.

Thomas Haidon is fighting an uphill battle, but I know him as an honourable and courageous person. He is the right man for this job.

Muslims believe that there is a duality in Islam of the Quran and Sunnah. Objectively speaking, there can be no real duality between the two. The Qu'ran (in Islam) is the undisputed word of God, which is recited today almost exactly as it was upon revelation. Ahadith arguably are forms of hearsay (what individuals claim they saw or overheard the prophet said and did). While aspects of the Sunnah may be valid, is it not inconceivable that the Caliphates following the death of the Prophet Mohammed created ahadith to consolidate political power, and use them as tools to control early Muslims? There is literally an entire "science" within Islam devoted to determining the validity of ahadith that is so complex that it confounds many Muslims. This duality has almost lead to the deification of the Prophet Mohammed among Muslims today. The essence of Islam is believing in God, and God alone. While the Qu'ran does command that Muslims should learn from the Mohammed as a prophet of God, as set forth in the Qu'ran, it does not explicitly require following of ahadith or Sunnah.

Whether Mr Waraq likes it or not, there is a growing movement of Muslims (albeit still a significant minority) who genuinely wish to radically reform Muslim thinking, to make it consistent with peace and modernity. The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism, and the Centre for Islamic Pluralism are two such organizations leading this movement, and are taking steps toward defining the scope and establishing the framework for comprehensive reform.. I ask that Ibn Waraq not marginalize us. I ask that he engage in meaningful dialogue with Muslims who are serious about reform. I look forward to further elaborating on some of my points in future dialogues with him.

If all Muslims were like Thomas Haidon (who is a convert from Catholicism), there would be no Arab-Israeli conflict. But I do feel he engages in a bit of wishful thinking. I once called him naive, and in the correspondence that followed, I felt corrected by him. He is not naive. He does see the Islamic world for what it currently is.
But to maintain that millions of radical Muslims have it wrong, and that hundreds of millions of Muslims who back them or 'merely' agree with them also have it wrong, that is denying reality. Why does Mr Haidon feel he knows better than the most respected (by Muslims that is) scholars of the most respected (by Muslims that is) university in the Islamic world? And they essentially agree with mr Warraq!

I am no scholar of the Koran, but I am well aware that there are strong contradictions in this book. You can make a random claim and prove it by relevant quotes.
The Bible (particularly the Old Testament) too contains sections that when taken at face value automatically relegate Jews and Christians to a barbarian status. Just about any crime carries an automatic death penalty, and just about anything is a crime. So if Jews and/or Christians still lived by the literal interpretation of the Old Testament, the world would be in even more trouble than it is today. And the Bible would not be to blame, and neither is the Koran.
The wait is for the time that Muslims treat their holy book the way most Christians and Jews do theirs. In Haidons words, a reformation. The problem with Islam is that IT is still in medieval stages. Its crusades seem to have only just begun.
Required reading.